Ashlyn Graves

Name: Ashlyn 'Ash' Graves

Gender: Female

Age: 19

Grade: 12

School: John Endecott Memorial Academy

Hobbies and Interests: Music especially punk, guitar playing and song writing, horror movies, history and geography, trivia, volleyball, weightlifting, mixed martial arts.

Appearance: Ash is 5’8”, and naturally tends to hold muscle on her frame, averaging between 140 and 150 pounds primarily of lean and defined muscle, including her abdominals, due to relatively low body fat percentage. She is a top-heavy hourglass in profile, with broad shoulders and a large chest, and slightly narrower but still large hips.

Her facial shape is an overall circle, though she has a strongly defined, squarish jaw that rounds into her chin. She has a strongly defined nose with a long bridge. Her complexion is naturally clear, though she is prone to dryness on her lips and suffers period-related breakouts and scarring irregularly. Her eyes are the exact same shade as her sister’s, baby blue and naturally expressive. She wears her upper-back length dirty blonde hair in a usually straight ironed side-part, with loose layering. Her posture depends on her level of engagement: either being confident in social situations or more lazy otherwise. She has ear piercings, usually simple jewel studs, and a belly button piercing, either a plain metal stud or a faux black onyx jewel. Her voice is of an average pitch and full and she naturally projects and enunciates clearly.

Ash makes a habit of wearing one of several Endecott Memorial volleyball team jackets she owns, a heavy letterman-style jacket with a blue body, white sleeves, a gold trim, and a cartoon Johnny spiking over a net on the back. Besides this she usually wears casual clothes like jeans and fast fashion tops. She does not care for skirt pieces and owns none. Her jeans tend to be plain in color, rotating pairs of dull blues and blacks. She wears slip-ons like Vans for comfort and convenience, reserving sneakers strictly for team practice and sporting events. She is ok with showing skin and wearing revealing clothes, but due to her dislike of her shoulder width she is inclined towards certain types of tops like those with straps to foreshorten her broad collarbone. Ash uses makeup regularly, defaulting to natural styling, and is hesitant to be more experimental. She has some cheap jewelry for flair, usually for her hands in the form of rings and bracelets.

On the day of the abduction Ash was wearing black skinny jeans and a white knit crop top under her volleyball jacket. She had silver thermal leggings and wore black combat boots. She wore stud earrings and her black onyx belly button stud, along with a thick gold ring on her right hand.

Biography: Ashlyn was born November 11th, in 2002, the elder sister of fellow John Endecott student Katelyn Graves by less than a year. She was born to a middle-class couple in Brian and Michelle Graves. Brian was ex-military and had transitioned into civilian life by becoming an electrical engineer in Eversource, while Michelle worked as a laboratory technician in a local hospital.

Ash as a toddler was social and unafraid of strangers. Katelyn proved to be a problem that drew most of her parents’ attention when she was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder close to Ash's fifth birthday. Brian and Michelle tried to help Ash understand her younger sister's diagnosis, but Ash was too young, especially as Ashlyn herself had developed quickly with her language skills thus making it difficult to empathize with her sister’s mentality.

Ashlyn was quick to take leadership roles once she entered Kindergarten. Beyond organizing group projects and play dates Ashlyn’s biggest hobby was reading. She particularly enjoyed nonfiction due to her fascination with history and maps. Though not as intelligent naturally as her younger sister, Ashlyn earnestly enjoyed learning and sharing trivia. Her parents tried to endorse her love of factoids, but they were unconsciously biased towards Kate’s development of artistic endeavors due to being more interesting, which rankled young Ash with its unfairness.

Ash and Kate had a difficult relationship. Ash was the one who performed emotional labor like breaking up arguments among her friends at school, so Ash’s emotional tolerance was often burnt out. When Kate entered elementary school, she proved to be problematic due to the host of social difficulties her ASD gave her: she was bullied, ignored, and often had outbursts in class, which deeply embarrassed Ashlyn. Ash still lacked the maturity and empathy to understand Kate’s condition, and she tried to force her sister to behave without success.

Ash’s lack of patience due to extreme resistance in Kate’s single-minded tantrums led to Ash often suffering temper tantrums of her own. These moments of breakdown in Ash’s composure would result in physical abuse, with Ash hitting and manhandling her younger sister in an effort to get her to stop. Ash was cognizant enough of the wrongness of her behavior that she was guilty about it, taking pains to only berate her younger sister when they were alone and without the parents so they wouldn't see if she lost her temper. The physical abuse was infrequent and neither sister would admit what happened between them to their parents, who presumed that the two were on bad terms but in a manner typical for siblings.

They could see Ash’s behavior that was less hidden, usually her tendency to be quick to verbal barbs and blaming Kate for petty matters. With time they grew impatient with Ash as she had the responsibility of being both the elder sister and the neurotypical one. Their attempts to lecture and discipline Ash to be kinder never produced particular changes beyond superficial politeness and more resentment on Ash’s part. They never were satisfied with their progress in improving Ash’s sulking and outward disdain for her younger sister, but Kate was enough of an issue by herself that Ash always fell by the wayside in terms of their attention.

Ash justified her behavior as necessary to herself: Kate had to be taught how to fit in before she got older. Making it into a moral imperative only ramped up the pressure Ash felt on herself to make a difference, meaning she would be even more short tempered and impatient. Inevitably Ash’s methods had little impact save for ruining her relationship with her younger sister and giving Kate lifelong trauma.

Even in quieter moments Ash would bear resentment against her sister, who seemed naturally more talented and whose hobbies more closely aligned with what their parents personally enjoyed. While Ash was only able to tolerate the outdoor excursions Brian loved, Kate grew to adore them herself and even got the attention of Brian’s friends for her growing interest in hunting activities. Ash could only stay quiet and go along with it. Ash maintains unconscious biases based on her childhood grievances to this day such as disliking outdoor-focused activities.

Ash progressed through her elementary school years with good grades with good work ethic, continuing to develop herself as a leader who was skilled with group dynamics and a people pleaser. Growth in her hobbies outside of school was more limited, with Ashlyn struggling with mental block due to her hangups with her sister. For example Michelle listened to classic rock and metal, and Ash through osmosis wanted to learn guitar. However, Ash felt that her hobbies wouldn’t be supported like her sisters’ were, and she often declined offers to take classes and shut herself in her room to read.

As Ash got older she learned to have a more steady hand with her temper, but she remained leery of her sister and the two interacted only through Ash lecturing her, with Ash otherwise writing off her younger sister as hopeless, pointedly minimizing her younger sister’s presence in social settings where Ash could be embarrassed through proxy. She remained convinced at the time that her former physically abusive behavior had been the correct choice. She considered herself distant from her family in general, having internalized that her parents preferred Kate, which was in many regards true given Ash’s shutting herself off.

Ashlyn finished her last year of elementary school upset that the social groups she’d carefully managed and felt most comfortable and stable in would be pulled apart by graduating into different schools, and uncomfortable with the effects of puberty on her physique. She began to be more secretive with her interests in history and trivia for a time, caving under social pressure to not come off as too much of a nerd. She began to excel in PE, motivated to feel some control over her changing body.

After she graduated, tragedy struck the family. Brian, Michelle, and Katelyn were involved in an automobile accident. Brian and Michelle both died in the hospital. Ash was not by their side as Michelle in a moment of lucidity had asked Ash to keep a grievously injured Kate company. The two siblings were adopted by designated guardian Amy Williams, their mother’s sister.

Ash was devastated and traumatized, for while Ash had been resentful she’d always truly loved her family in her own way. Kate was the one more obviously suffering with grief and trauma, however, and Ash fronted strength due to a feeling of social obligation despite inwardly feeling hollow, empty, and suffering from nightmares, appetite loss, and other typical signs of PTSD. Ash thus slipped under the radar as a lot of money and time had to be put into Kate. She was put in therapy for a while, but uncomfortable with the idea of depending on someone else’s help, Ash lied and obscured her true symptoms and was convincing enough to be given a clean bill of health and be not recommended for additional therapy sessions.

Ash, ironically, developed a strong working relationship with her new guardians, as she put on her bravest responsible face for them and helped them with Kate, who they were simply not prepared to deal with and often had to distance themselves from for their own mental health.

Ash still had no real maturity or control of her raw emotions, and she was not above emotional abuse. Her relationship with Kate took another turn for the worse, as to cope with her own grief she openly belittled and blamed Kate for causing their parents’ deaths and for being unlovable and a burden, all of which were things that Ash believed despite trying to intellectualize her helpless rage into something more personally palatable.

Ashlyn became less interested in her social standing and became more of a bully, intimidating socially meek kids who she’d once been at least neutral towards. Her grades slipped as she focused on finding outlets for her emotional struggles, writing long rambling essays to herself to vent that she’d hide away from anyone else in the family. Ash began to suffer regular absences and failures to turn in school work as her apathy deepened. Her adoptive parents noticed and did their best to reach out to her and encourage her to return to therapy. She half-heartedly did for some time to keep up appearances, but failed to break ground and began skipping on those sessions until they were no longer paid for.

After an incident where she punched a wall when teased by a girl in class she was suspended for several days, and with some reluctance observing how on edge she was her adoptive parents agreed that Ash could stay home instead of forcing herself to go to class. Ash took advantage of the offer and did just that, eventually racking up enough absences in her apathy that she failed multiple classes and was held back a year.

This failure shocked her into realizing how her mental health struggles were holding her back. She started to make an effort again but was inconsistent, and remained disengaged and apathetic. The only subjects that gave her any solace were English, where her brooding allowed her to explore a style ironically similar to the one Katelyn would develop in her own artistic endeavors, and PE, where she worked out the stress she felt trapped by. In PE her motivation made her excel and the class coaches regularly asked her to try out for teams. She remained disinclined, her sense of ambition non-existent beyond simply not being humiliated by another grade repeat and finding outlets for her anger and frustration.

The summer Ash was due to graduate into high school, Kate attempted suicide. Her death was only averted by a stroke of luck that allowed the others in the house to rescue her in time. Ash would begin to blame herself for her part in denigrating her sister, as she realized she couldn’t bring herself to be by her sister's bedside, fearing that the sight of herself would only make things worse for Kate. Ash still struggled with accepting the consequences of her actions, and she would never fully be capable of admitting to herself her fault. She compartmentalized and buried her failures as an older sister. Her takeaway was to live her best life for herself, to be better to Kate, and this pushed her to escape the mental funk that had consumed her for the past two years.

Given that she couldn’t personally come to terms with her prior abuse of Kate, she also couldn’t make that leap of good faith apologize and try to start them on a path to any real repair or healing. Kate remained passive, awkward, and intimidated around her older sister. Ash began to make herself see Kate the same way her parents did and began to baby Kate: unwanted fussing over her, advice through the lens of extroversion that Ash viewed the world with, and so on. Generally Ash would remain incapable of putting herself into her younger sister’s shoes and understanding her, and Kate’s behavior remained off-putting to Ash, at times drawing involuntary raising of the voice or other harsh responses that could trigger Kate’s memories of her prior abuse.

The one hobby the two sisters could mutually share and find common ground in their adoration of the horror genre. Neither Amy nor her husband cared much for the horror movies Ash would put on in the living room, usually gothic horror and thrillers but open to all genres. It was Kate who would sometimes join her, and the movies were the one thing they could generally bond over without difficulty, usually because they didn’t have to speak much to one another in the process.

As Ash began to further mellow out of her emotional low point, she was attracted to expressing herself in song. She was determined to be more confident, and to return to the old hobbies she’d formerly had hangups about pursuing. She began to expand her repertoire of music, but picked genres that wouldn’t remind her of her deceased mother. Punk appealed to her as it was guitar-driven and was distinct enough that she could feel it was her own discovered sound. Ash purchased a guitar, first an acoustic and a year later an electric as she developed some prowess, and began to pluck at it during her last year of middle school. She was very private about it from the get go as the process of songwriting made her feel more vulnerable than she was comfortable with expressing, often reminding her of the years she’d struggled with her mental health following her parents’ death.

Ash couldn't quite shake the reputation for brusque standoffishness she’d developed in her repeat grade years, especially as many of the friends who had followed her from elementary school would now be her senior, changing the dynamic she’d become accustomed to. She consciously embraced this. It was readily natural to her anyways, given how she’d changed in the wake of her parents death, so it was easy for her to build a new persona around being more cynical, dark-humored, and bold than she’d been as a more simpering and fussy child.

Embracing being more of a straight-shooter let her step back into roles of being group leadership. She started small when she entered high school, assisting her PE coach that year and also often stepping up to direct teams she was in during class to victory. She found her new demeanor definitely produced results. She was listened to more, and thus incentivized to continue going on as she was, especially as she ignored the discomfort her aggressive bluntness could cause. She also used her intimidating presence and behavior to drive off annoying boys, which was a godsend for her as she generally disliked attention from them.

Ashlyn had renewed ambitions: she wanted to graduate in a good position to go to college, and wanted to excel in athletics. She credited sports in part for saving her when she’d felt at her lowest, and also thought participating more in that form of extracurricular would be her own lane that she didn’t have to feel she was competing against Kate for, given that Kate had no interest in team sports.

Ashlyn tried dancing and cheerleading her freshman year, remembering how she’d wanted to be a dancer when younger. She ended up enjoying cheerleading more, as it allowed her to network more with the other school teams and keep an ear on the school athletics situation. Her mindfulness and curt tendencies meant she was typically good at being an authoritative voice in fundraiser projects and the like, so she often helped out in this capacity even when not on the team doing the fundraising. She focused on her role in cheerleading, but was always available for pickup games in most other sports where she had the physique and general know-how.

Her insecurities with her body did remain, but she was also determined enough to turn a negative self-image into a positive one by owning her general bulkiness. With her full-time immersion in the school athletics program she had plenty of friends to lift weights with, and she further decided to supplement her muscle building routine with martial arts training outside of school. She found focusing on fighting disciplined her and enjoyed how it cleared her thoughts and helped her maintain focus. Ultimately Ashlyn remained down on herself despite her concerted efforts to improve and she personally felt out of place among the generally cuter and smaller cheerleaders she worked with. She put herself down about it to the point where she decided she no longer belonged on the team and she left the team at the end of her sophomore year.

She felt restless and directionless without something organized to focus her energy on. She tried out for teams over the summer and adjoining fall season and found that her physical prowess and discipline qualified her in the eyes of many coaches. She singled out volleyball specifically because it wasn’t as high profile a team, leading her to believe her presence would have more of a positive effect. She gelled with the team quick and fast, held a role as team captain in her second semester of junior year, and still considers many of the girls on it close friends.

Her tendency to assume command even outside of actual leadership roles sometimes wasn’t well-regarded, and at times her behavior in trying to motivate the lesser performing members of the team would come close to bullying and emotional manipulation. While earnest and with the best intentions, Ash’s behavior in this regard showed the ways in which she hadn’t matured from her gross mistreatment of Katelyn.

Her work in martial arts expanded shortly after she left the cheer squad. She increasingly appreciated the meditative elements of sparring and of the more spiritual elements of some of the individual martial arts she gained insight into through the local MMA studio, helping her find a sense of grounding and community that were harder to come by in her school environment, where she sometimes felt alienated by the pressure to succeed and help others. MMA practice is presently a significant chunk of her daily schedule, especially when it’s not volleyball season. She drills everyday and spars whenever she can find a partner.

Ashlyn’s modern reputation is positive; many of the people who she’s harmed with her over-aggression and lack of empathy are those who wouldn’t be noticed anyways. Among many of the more socially adept and promising students of the school Ash is a community-minded girl who puts in a lot of positive work and who is easy to get along with if curt and sometimes morbid in the way she speaks.

She gets good grades, organizes study groups, and can even be vulnerable around good friends who are aware of her more sedate and nerdy hobbies like horror movies and trawling the internet for trivia in her free time. The latter remains her most distinct carryover from her childhood self, and while she’s often too busy to do it for hours like when she was little she still will immediately elect to browse maps, memorize flags, and scroll sites like Wikipedia and TV Tropes in her downtime. She’s generally capable of winning in any friendly trivia contest and is no longer shy about showing off that fact like she used to be. Certain hobbies she still keeps to herself for how personal they are, like her writing music. She also rarely dances nowadays, even at parties, unless with an intimate partner.

In her romantic life she’s mostly been attracted to and dated girls. Though her most stable relationship has been with a boy and is still ongoing as of present she considers him a clear exception and does not intend to try such an experiment again. Her approach to relationships is casual and guarded, especially in her current long term relationship where both herself and Salem Fox actively consider the relationship likely to end at any moment, an amicable conclusion with only some facetiousness on both their parts. It is rare even those she’s been intimate with have gotten to see the aspects of her personality she doesn’t pick and choose to show off.

Her performance in classes remains solid due to her diligence, and she has positive regard for most of her classes nowadays, especially now that she’s publicly embraced enjoying learning for learning’s sake. She hopes to get into a good university with her stellar resume of grades and extracurriculars, with a practical preference for a school in the University of Massachusetts system as she’s leery of the effects of the recent pandemic.

Her relationship with her adopted family and with Kate remains stable. Her adopted parents prefer her being more mature, and Kate and herself remain mostly awkward and emotionally distant. She was even desensitized to Kate’s second go about at suicide, believing on some level that Katelyn would never really go through with it, or at least being unwilling to seriously give thought to the alternatives to her assumptions.

Advantages: Ashlyn is a hard worker, with self-assuredness and determination that will be a boon in tackling the mental difficulties of adjusting to island dynamics. Ashlyn is quite fit for her age and has dedication to her martial arts training, which can produce combat advantages.

Disadvantages: Her cynicism and stubbornness are pronounced to the point where she may too easily give up on important survival tactics and alliances. Her aggression may backfire on her readily in the same way, as she often feels the need to stick to her own instincts and is not generally capable of re-thinking her first impressions or backing off from challenging others.

Designated Number: Student No. 112

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Designated Weapon: Collar Radar (range of 100 yards)

Conclusion: I like this one, she's in good shape, has fighting experience, got a good weapon draw, and is a massive bitch, which historically has worked out well. - Josie Knight

'The above biography is as written by Cicada. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Cicada

Kills: 

Killed By: 

Collected Weapons:  Collar Radar(assigned weapon)

Allies: 

Enemies: 

Mid-game Evaluation: 

Post-Game Evaluation: 

Memorable Quotes:

Threads
Below is a list of threads containing Ashlyn, in chronological order.

V8:
 * You Missed My Heart
 * Legion of Doom, Assemble!
 * The Holly and the Heavens
 * The Fool Was Her
 * Fall Out Through the Fallout
 * Give Me a Kiss to Build a Dream On
 * Honor Amongst Thieves
 * My Hopes Were So Much Higher

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Ashlyn. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''